Whether the two friends were flustered or not, the dragon and the dragon’s contractor were locked in fierce competition.
Lee Han threw the bone, mobilizing every bit of experience he had gained from fighting the Ghoul King and the Frost Giant King.
“Follow your master’s command... freeze!”
He fired ice projectiles, cast illusion magic in front of her, twisted trajectories with telekinesis, and summoned creatures to distract her attention. Faced with such excessive magic, Eandurde thought to himself.
Do we really have to go this far?
“Huff, huff, huff... Eandurde. Help me out a bit too. There are other bones here, so where should we hide them around the manor?”
“Yes...”
Unlike usual, Eandurde answered in a slightly dispirited voice.
This felt like the most trivial order he had ever received.
“Basil, you...”
-!
“Go over there and eat some snacks.”
-...?!
The baby basilisk felt a certain humiliation, but the snacks looked too delicious for it to think too deeply about that.
***
That craftsman mage really does have outstanding skill.
Lee Han thought that while watching Jowurin sleep soundly, breathing in gentle snores.
After playing every game imaginable with the bones, Jowurin had fallen asleep contentedly on the chains.
Catching and retrieving flying bones, finding bones hidden in corners of the manor, dodging and throwing bones, secretly giving bones as gifts to the knights standing guard outside, and so on.
However, all of those games would have lost their luster without the skill of the craftsman, Gashufa.
Not only could the bones be fitted with all sorts of sweet desserts, meat, and fish, but when bitten, they burst with a satisfying texture and cheerful sounds. They even had a soft, squishy feel that made them good for playing with front paws.
Could that craftsman have ties to dragons? How did Gashufa make them so perfectly suited for her?
“You worked hard, Eandurde.”
The junior, who was cleaning up the bone toys Jowurin had destroyed by chewing on them in her excitement, shook his head.
Of course he was tired. To keep up with an excited Jowurin, he had needed to move as quickly as he did when fighting in the arena.
But admitting that this had been hard work would wound his pride as a warrior.
It was not difficult at all!
“I’ll definitely repay you later. It’s nothing new, but I’m really glad you and Jowurin became friends.”
“...”
At those words, Eandurde felt embarrassed.
In the past, he would have denied it, but now he had no choice but to acknowledge it.
Jowurin was definitely his friend.
“Now, then. Keep watch over your friend. I need to break these chains first.”
“...”
Eandurde was struck by a fresh sense of awe.
Showing absolutely no mercy even to a dragon and that dragon’s contractor.
Perhaps this truly was the embodiment of the Einroguard spirit.
“What are you doing? You took Jowurin’s side once before, so it should be fine if you don’t this time.”
“That... does not seem to be the issue...”
Still, as a good junior, Eandurde began watching over Jowurin. The happy gold dragon was fast asleep, snoring peacefully.
“I thought this was resolved through conversation earlier.”
“Ah... it’ll probably be resolved through conversation, right? His Majesty isn’t that bad a person.”
-?
“?”
The baby basilisk and Eandurde looked at Lee Han in confusion, as if his words and actions were contradicting each other.
If this could be resolved through conversation, why break the chains while she was asleep?
“If I break the chains first, she’ll be less stubborn, so persuading her will be easier.”
“I see.”
“And if persuasion fails, we’ll need to run away too.”
“...”
No matter how Eandurde thought about it, the latter seemed to be his senior’s true intention, but he said nothing.
In truth, he still felt a little sorry for having brought his respected senior here only to put shackles on her.
How should I break them?
Lee Han considered the problem seriously.
In some ways, he seemed to be thinking more seriously than he did during Einroguard’s final exams.
But it could not be helped. This was a problem difficult enough to warrant it.
He had to break magically treated chains without waking the sleeping Jowurin!
I should assume their resistance to pure mana shock is perfect.
Thanks to the advice of some tactless mage, the chains completely blocked the brute-force method of breaking them with mana.
With a structure that dispersed mana impact in every direction, it might take decades for pure mana alone to accumulate enough damage to break them.
But physical resistance is...
Lee Han looked at Jowurin, who was smiling happily as she dreamed of something.
Even in her sleep, she had precisely tucked Lee Han’s sword, which she had taken earlier, into her embrace. She was clearly wary of the chains’ physical weaknesses.
“Ice, dwell within.”
Lee °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° Han cast a simple low-level ice-element spell.
For magic below the fourth-circle, once a mage properly learned the application of the corresponding element, the mage could adapt quickly without needing to learn each spell separately.
Ice was an element Lee Han understood quite well, having completed projectile magic with it.
Thanks to the experience he had accumulated with water and lightning, controlling the ice element was even easier. Lee Han quickly changed the shape of the ice in the air.
Dagger.
An ice dagger was created in midair.
In fact, sculptures, arrows, and cone-shaped projectiles made of ice were attack spells often used by cryomancers.
In terms of difficulty, it was about second-circle level. Up to this point, it was not particularly difficult.
Ting.
Lee Han lightly tapped the dagger against the chains. The seeping cold was dispersed and vanished.
As expected, ice is meaningless. I need to strike with something sharper and harder. If I use telekinesis and cast enhancement magic before striking... there will be noise, and the impact will be transmitted.
-Sen...
Even if insufficient physical destructive power could be supplemented with telekinesis and enhancement magic, the noise and impact were problems.
Wouldn’t Jowurin, sleeping right on the chains in front of him, wake up immediately?
Noise is... what was the principle behind soundproofing magic again? I think there was a silence-type curse among the dark magic curses. Was it creating a barrier? That seems doable.
Befitting the future leader of Einroguard’s dark magic school, Lee Han somehow completed the soundproofing magic on the spot.
If Diret had seen this, Diret would have shed tears of joy.
The impact is the problem.
If he simply struck hard, the chains would shake with it, and Jowurin might wake up.
Then...
Should I cut them? Enhance cutting power instead of impact.
-Senb...
Considering the magic and methods Lee Han possessed, cutting sharply was definitely more difficult than breaking something through impact.
But he could not give up just because it was difficult. Lee Han pondered once more.
At times like this, I can’t get help from Lesser World or Arna.
With unreasonable complaints filling his mind, Lee Han stared intently at the ice dagger.
If I draw out cutting power with Bivle’s enhancement magic series and even draw out aura with my mana, something might happen.
Although his mana was dispersed each time it touched the chains, Lee Han had overflowing mana anyway. If it was consumed, he could simply replenish it.
But with that plan, the dagger’s durability became the problem this time.
When he had been thinking of breaking the chains through impact, he had only planned to fire once and break them. If he was going to cut through them, this dagger needed to endure to some degree.
Damn it. I should have practiced the ice element regularly. Even earth would have been better.
-Senior...
With reckless thoughts in his head, Lee Han pondered ways to increase the durability of the ice dagger.
What methods were there besides using high-difficulty applied properties of the corresponding element?
If I input more mana... that’s too crazy.
Lee Han dismissed the idea as soon as it came to him.
Pouring more mana than necessary into magic that already had a fixed mana requirement was foolish.
It was like increasing the heat or adding more salt without thinking while cooking.
Moreover, because of his innate constitution, Lee Han was already casting quite precariously with far more mana than other mages...
Yet once the thought occurred to him, it strangely refused to disappear.
Lee Han felt unsettled by his own inexplicable idea.
It seemed like he could do it now.
In the past, he had been overwhelmed simply controlling his overflowing mana and following existing magic. But with the experience he had accumulated, he felt that he could use this mana more flexibly.
Though he himself was not yet aware of it, the confidence built from everything he had achieved so far was unconsciously seeping out.
...Right. Let’s try it once. Surely it won’t break just because of this.
-Senior...!
Lee Han prepared his magic, intending to summon an ice dagger with several times more mana than usual.
Normally, this would fail during casting or cause adverse effects.
“Cold air...”
It was a truly strange sensation.
More mana than he usually controlled flowed out in every direction. The mana that failed to form the shape of the magic seemed ready to make the casting collapse at any moment.
However, the mana did not easily scatter or cause problems. Lee Han realized that he could control it.
Bound by his strong will, the mana quickly returned to its original form and took shape.
This was similar in form to the original magic, but it was clearly different magic.
Lee Han finally understood what he had done.
Magic improvement!
In the Empire, besides the spell, there were also spells such as <Garcia’s Fire Arrow> and <Vagni’s Fire Arrow>.
These were the results of later mages reinterpreting and improving relatively basic and popular spells.
Naturally, they needed to be clearly superior to the original magic and have distinguishing features. Otherwise, they would simply be treated as jokes and forgotten.
What Lee Han had just cast was theoretically the same.
It was magic newly reconstructed beyond the mana limitations of the existing spell.
...Hmm. Now that I think about it, it’s a bit subtle.
Lee Han regained his composure.
He had been moved at first, but after thinking about it carefully, this improvement was meaningless to anyone but him.
It was good that he had greatly increased the power and performance of low-level magic, but what mage would pour mana endlessly into a spell for that purpose?
Still, it was sufficient for Lee Han to use. After checking the ice dagger he had just summoned, Lee Han made up his mind.
With this much, I might be able to do it.
Enhance the cutting power, draw out aura, and somehow deliver a blow...
...
Lee Han was so focused that he did not notice the hungry Jowurin had gotten up and was staring at him. He smiled sinisterly as he looked at the ice dagger.
Lee Han...!
“!?”
Startled, Lee Han dismissed the ice dagger and turned his gaze.
Jowurin, who had been the happiest dragon in the Empire only moments ago, looked at Lee Han with an aggrieved and sorrowful expression, as though she had lost everything in the world.
Lee Han was trying to escape!!!
“I’m not sure what you mean, Your Majesty. I was merely practicing magic as an Einroguard student.”
Lee Han lied without batting an eye and called Eandurde.
“Why didn’t you call me?!”
“...I kept calling you...!!!”
The second most aggrieved person in this manor dungeon was none other than Eandurde.
When Jowurin tossed and turned, trying to get up, he had kept calling his senior. But Lee Han had been completely absorbed in the world of magic and had not noticed at all.
“No way. I did that!?”
“Yes...”
“How can someone get that absorbed in magic? That doesn’t make sense.”
-...
“...”
While Eandurde and the baby basilisk looked at him as though they were dumbfounded, Jowurin shouted in a somewhat urgent voice.
If Lee Han saw the gift Jowurin had prepared, he would change his mind too!
“No matter what gift I receive, I don’t think I’ll want to keep wearing chains... Wait. This isn’t some ridiculous, absurd, shameless gift related to a dragon’s body, is it?”
When Lee Han’s voice became somewhat stern and cold, Jowurin answered hastily.
No!
“Phew. I trusted you.”
It seems like you did not trust me...
Jowurin grumbled quietly while guiding Lee Han toward the deeper part of the cave.
This was Jowurin’s own space, one that even the guests who visited this manor were not allowed to see.
Here! Right here!
“?”
Tapping the floor with her front paw, Jowurin pointed to a pitch-black hole. The strange swirl of mana emanating from within was reminiscent of a dungeon.
“It looks like a dungeon. What is it?”
It is a dungeon?
“...”
Lee Han seriously considered whether he should first ask why such a thing existed in the manor, or why this was supposed to be a gift.
